Welcome to the Mentor Learning Center

Monthly Learning Moments

Monthly Learning Moments allow you to build a deeper context of the education landscape and the forces that may be affecting your mentee. The Learning Moments are designed to cultivate and extend your understanding of the public education system, issues of equity along racial and socioeconomic lines and how these elements interact to create an opportunity gap for our students. As a mentor, we hope you will use these resources to grow personally and professionally alongside your mentee and that you will feel galvanized to take action to support broader equity in education. You can access the Learning Moments by navigating to the grade-level pages below.

During your first year in the program, you are encouraged to explore foundational principles of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and ground your current and/or developing knowledge in the historical inequities that have impacted the US education system since its inception. Through the 9th Grade Monthly Learning Moments, you can explore your own cultural frames of reference and how your own experiences, perspectives, and approach to the world relates to cultivating your pair relationship. You can engage in self-reflection to continue on your personal journey of self-awareness. Exploring these frameworks can give you tools to build a relationship with your mentee that are rooted in affirmation and respect of differences. The year will culminate with a reflection on why you engage in this work with your mentee, which will set the foundation for next year.

During 10th Grade, you are encouraged to further explore the historical inequities that have impacted the education system since its inception by examining the disparities that exist between schools in affluent and low-income communities and key events that have impacted the education of students who were not born in the United States. In addition to grounding in this historical context, you can also explore the challenges and barriers that first-generation and undocumented students face in the US education system. Additionally, you are invited to engage in self-reflection and analyze the impact of socialization on your actions and your pair relationship. You can map your actions and key behavioral habits through the cycle of liberation framework.The year will culminate with synthesizing what you have internalized about the challenges that many first-generation students face and how you as an individual are best positioned to make a change.

If this is your and your mentee's first year in the program, you are encouraged to explore foundational principles of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and ground your current and/or developing knowledge in the historical inequities that have impacted the US education system since its inception. You can explore your own cultural frames of reference and how your own experiences, perspectives, and approach to the world relates to cultivating your pair relationship. You are invited to engage in self-reflection to continue on your personal journey of self-awareness. You can explore frameworks that will give you tools to build a relationship with your mentee that is rooted in affirmation and respect of differences.The year will culminate with reflecting on why you engage in this work with your mentee, which will set the foundation for next year.

During 11th grade, you are encouraged to analyze the power dynamics within your pair relationship and reflect upon the impactof those dynamics on perception and behavior.You can reflect on your own access to privilege,so that you can challenge and/or navigate any power dynamics that could be inhibiting your pair relationship. You can explore the principles of effective dialogue and are invited to use these principles in your pair relationship in order to foster more meaningful conversations about the hopes, fears, challenges, and/or opportunities mentees are feeling and facing as they begin to engage more deeply in the college process. You can learn more about the link between the education and the criminal justice system by exploring the school to prison pipeline. Additionally, there is opportunity to reflect on the power of empathy and its ability to transform and deepen your pair relationship as well as how to leverage the assets that mentees and their communities possess. The year will culminate with solidifying your personal theory of change.

During your and your mentee's final year in the high school program, we encourage you to deepen your understanding of the challenges and barriers mentees might face in their post-secondary option of choice. You can explore different perspectives on remedial education in higher education. You can explore additional frameworks that will position you to continue actions towards educational equity in the long-term, including liberatory consciousness and aspiring allyship. Through these Monthly Learning Moments, you can learn about the story of self, story of us, and story of now. The year will culminate with creating and sharing a public narrative that highlights your personal commitment to ending inequity for first-generation students, your experiences in the program, and what you are best positioned to do to continue your commitment.

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The Learning Center is a centralized collection of resources for iMentor staff, partners, mentors, mentees, funders, schools, and other friends of iMentor. The goal of the Learning Center is to provide everyone the tools and information they need to fulfill their roles in our program.